Frog Hooded Towel for Baby and Toddlers

Years ago I used to make a lot of these hooded frog towels for friends as baby gifts, but for some reason I quit making them for a while. I have to say, when I made this I was reminded just how cute they really are. My 7 year old is begging me to make him one now. And the best part? I really could! These hooded towels are great for newborns clear up to young kids. Toddlers, preschoolers, everyone. So, here’s my frog hooded towel tutorial for you so YOU can make one too!

These towels take maybe 30 minutes to an hour max and cost less than $10. Not bad! And guess what? I have tutorials for a duck, monkey, dragon, ladybug and others coming in the future.

Frog Hooded Towel Tutorial:

What You Need:
Green bath towel (I got mine at Target and it cost about $4-5)
Green hand towel to match the bath towel
Small amounts of white and black fabric
Iron on transfer paper
Small amount of red fabric (I usually use fleece or felt but any will work)
Green, white and black thread

Frog Hooded Towel Tutorial:

To start, snip all the tags off of your towels and hand towels to get them out of the way.

Then cut your hand towel in half the hamburger way (as in not the long skinny hot dog way, but the short, fat, hamburger way.)

Fold the edge of the hand towel over about 4 or 5 inches. Pin it in place and sew a straight stitch.

Simple enough right?
With the leftover half of your hand towel, cut out your green frog nose from the pattern piece you printed. Cut two and then sew them together leaving a couple of inches open on the top (the straight part) so that you can turn it. Then turn it.

Cut two:

Stitch together leaving opening on top straight part:

Turn:

Don’t worry about sewing that opening closed. That will take care of itself when you attach the nose to the towel.

Now do the same with your red fabric and the tongue pieces-cut two, sew them together leaving an opening at the top and turn it. If you are using felt you can just use one layer and not sew it.

Flip the hand towel over. Center your nose on the hand towel right along the stitch line you made previously. Stick the tongue up under the nose right where you are going to sew so that you will catch it in there too while you sew the nose on and then do a fairly tight zig zag to attach your nose.

See how the tongue is under there:

Zig Zag along the nose to attach it:

Cut out two white eyes and two black eyeballs from the pattern pieces. Iron them onto the iron-on paper and then iron them into place on your towel:

Now, using a very tight and fairly narrow zig zag stitch (applique), sew around them first in white on the white parts then in black on the black parts:

While you have your black thread in, add some little nostrils to your nose. Flip the nose out so that you can work with it. Then I just use the same tight zig zag stitch and go forward about an inch and then reverse over it one time. You could do this before you attach your nose to the towel if you prefer, I just like to wait until I have my black thread in anyway.

There’s your frog face!

Now, fold the hand towel in half with the face on the inside and zig zag the raw edges together to form the hood.
I like my frog to have more of a rounded head rather than pointy. To do this, fold your head like this:

And stitch a straight line across the top triangle part like this:

Then you can just snip that tip off if you want.

And now you should have a nice, cute frog head.

Next you need to sew your head onto your hooded towel. I have sort of a fancy way I like to do it with a little pleat that makes the towel wrap around the kid even better. You can do it that way or you can just center it on your towel and zig zag it in place. I recommend using a zig zag to keep it nice and secure.

Here’s how to do the the pleat if you want it:

In the center of the towel right where you want to sew your head on, make a fold like this:

Pin it in place and zig zag it together:

Now, sew your head on with a zig zag stitch like this: (see the pleat?)

And ta da! You have an adorable little frog hooded towel!
Really-your kids or your friends or whoever this is for-they are going to LOVE this!

Like I said, more tutorials for hooded towels coming…ducks, monkeys, dragons, ladybugs, owl, maybe a shark? Butterfly? Tiger? What do you want to see first? Other ideas? I think I will do a towel a month, so stayed tuned (like me on facebook, RSS, Twitter, Pinterest) to see more!

Congratulations!! You are featured this week on Busy Monday at A Pinch of Joy! I hope you will stop by and grab a Featured Button from the Button Box on the sidebar. Can’t wait to see what other projects you’ve been working on. Links are open — hope to see you again this week!

Great tutorial! The kids and I made a frog and a bunny (using frog eyes and the instructions for the ears of the monkey) yesterday for a friend’s children. Now they want me to make them some! lol! Instructions and photos were wonderful. As a side note, I stitched around the black line on the nose pattern and cut 1/4″ beyond that. I just pinned the printer paper to the fabric like you would any other pattern. Very, very cute!

I came across this tutorial a few months ago and pinned it with my baby nephew in mind. Tonight I finally made it! Your instructions were easy to follow, and yes, the tongue pattern was missing but I just did my own thing and it worked out fine. Thanks so much for sharing, this was a cheap, easy and fun Christmas present to make for him!

I’m so excited to try this! I bought my towels the other day to try two frogs and a ladybug! (One frog is for my new nephew and the others are for my baby girl on the way). I was wondering if felt could be used for the eyes and/or the iron on paper step skipped? Just seeing if I need to run one more errand before I start. Thanks! :)

THANK YOU FOR THIS PATTERN! It was fast, easy, and very very cute. I made the frog for my nephew’s baby shower, but I think that I’ll be making him some more animal towels after he’s born!! This might also become my go-to handmade baby shower gift for expecting friends as well :-) :-)

I love these towels and have three grandchildren who are going to love them this Christmas. I just made the ladybug and have the dragon and the bear all cut and ready to be sewn. Your directions are fantastic and the final products are darling. Thank you so much for sharing your creativity with us. I have a feeling that this will be my go to project for baby gifts and birthday gifts.

I am loving this tutorial, but I am very new to sewing.. It is going well but I am about to start with the eyes and the transfer paper stuff. Is the purpose of the paper to stiffen up the white fabric or is it suppose to stick the white fabric to the towel for easier sewing?
Thanks for the help in advance.. K

Thanks so much. 1 more question. No one at JoAnn Fabric knew what iron on transfer paper was. Is fusible web the same thing??
I made one without it and it turned out great but want to make more. Using your concept and going to make a gorilla for my nephew.

Thank u so much. This is an awesome tutorial! I am a confidant sewer so I didn’t print pattern I just cut it Free hand. It is incredibly easy I loved it. Im making all my gifts this year so made the dragon for a friend’s bibs 1st birthday. It’s gorgeous. I made 2 frogs for my twin nephews and got creative and made A shark for my 2 year old. Thank u for this blog It has gotten me back to enjoying my creativity. Would love to see a butterfly at some point. Im all set to do a lady bug tonight. Thanks again

Amber, forgive me for not understanding, but to attach the nose to the hood with the tongue intact, I have to sew through 8 layers of thick fabric? I can’t fit this under my pressure foot. What am I doing wrong?

With my presser foot I can lift it higher than normal with the lever. Are you able to do that? Play around with yours and see. I have to raise it really high to get that load of fabric under there and then sew carefully to not break a needle.

I love this pattern and have made two frogs and have towels to do a monkey. The instructions are easy to follow and your pictures are wonderful. I have just one question? When you make the pleat on the large towel do you open it to the front or back? Thank you for these wonderful patterns. We are expecting our first grandson and have several great nieces and nephews who will be getting these as presents!

I understand how to make the pleat but is the picture that you show, the back outside or the inside? I made one each way. I think it looks better if this is the outside but I think it wraps better if it’s on the inside. Thanks

This is amazing – thank you so much for sharing! Mine took me ‘slightly’ longer, but I’m a bit of a novice. Instructions were really easy to follow. I’m making the frog and the duck for my friend’s twins.

Hi Amber. Thank you so much for all of your tutorials. Crazy little projects is one of my most favorite blogs. I am finally making time for these cute hooded towels. Ive decided take on this crazy little project and try to complete each one of these towel tutorials a week. It will be so cute on my little one! Thanks to your sewing series, I am gonna have the cutest towel wrapped baby on the block:)

HI i love your frog and wanted to try it out . I need HELP i cant fit the nose and tongue part under my machine do you have any tip or tricks ? if i try to do the tongue only my machine makes a lot of loops under it

To get it to fit under your presser foot raise your foot higher than its normal height. Do you know how to do that? Tere should be a lever next to it that will do it. Te looping om the underside would mean something’s off with your top thread. Try rethreading.

I saw your cute towels on pinterest and pinned them, I am in the midst of making red angry bird, Elmo and the bunny for our Grandchildren, for Easter. What do you mean when you say cut the selvage edge under 3 moments. Do you mean 3 inches.
I am having so much fun making these, thanks so much for sharing your great ideas!
Joan

I just come across your page and spent ages looking at all your stuff. I love your blog. I don’t have a lot of experience but find so much fun in trying new things.
I absolutely adore these towels and will start making the little frog this weekend.
Thanks so much.

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Hi! I am Amber. I'm first and foremost a mom to 4 boys. When I am not being a mom or a wife I love to bake, I love to sew, I love to read and I don't like to sit still. Welcome to Crazy Little Projects where I show off my latest crazy projects and show you how you can do them too. Thanks for visiting! [Read More …]

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What does this mean? It means I believe in Jesus Christ and his gospel and strive every day to live it. It means I value family above all else. And it means I want to be kind to others always. Let me tell you more here!